Shaun Donovan

Confirmation: Confirmed Jan. 22

Chosen for: Secretary of housing and urban development

Will bring to the job: Extensive experience with housing issues, learned in the pressure cooker of New York City, where he has been heading the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Since taking the position in 2004, he has focused on the ambitious goal of building more low- and moderate-income housing in New York City while navigating the web of interests, including landlords, developers and lenders, who all have a stake in the outcome. He also has experience in HUD, where he served as deputy assistant secretary for multifamily housing in the Clinton administration, managing a multibillion-dollar housing subsidy program that served 1.7 million people annually.

Is linked to Mr. Obama by: His work on the Obama campaign. Mr. Donovan took a leave of absence from his job in New York, with the mayor’s permission, to campaign for Mr. Obama.

In his own words: "I would never believe that the private sector, left to its own devices, is the best possible solution. I’m in government because of the role of government in setting rules and working in partnership with the private sector. On the other hand, there’s no way you could ever get to a scale that can really affect the housing problems in this country without working with the market." (From a 2006 New York Times profile).

Used to work as: A manager of Federal Housing Administration loans and affordable housing investments at Prudential Mortgage Capital Company. After serving in the Clinton administration, he was also a visiting scholar at New York University, where he studied federally assisted housing. Earlier in his career he worked at the Community Housing and Preservation Corporation, a nonprofit group based in New York City. As the city’s housing commissioner, he has been charged by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg with creating a stock of 165,000 affordable units by 2013.

Carries as baggage: No one holds a position like his without making some enemies and stirring some controversy, and Mr. Donovan is no exception. And though he has hands-on experience managing the vast bureaucracy and special interests involved in housing in New York City, he still faces the challenge of managing a federal agency that some critics call dysfunctional.

Also known for: His early interest in a career as a car designer, likely tied to his childhood hobby of building model cars. He also worked as an architect in New York and Italy.

Biography: Born Jan. 24, 1966, in New York ... received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard ... studied public administration at the Kennedy School of Government and architecture at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard ... married to Liza Gilbert, a landscape architect ... they have two sons, Milo and Lucas.